Add Shapes to Organization Charts in PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint enables you to create organization charts so your PowerPoint shapes can branch out from one another in four directions as well as appear to the side. When you place one shape below another shape on a PowerPoint chart, you can make the new shape hang so that it is joined to a line, not joined directly to the shape above it. Compare the following chart connections — Left Hanging, Right Hanging, and Both. Hanging shapes connect to a line that drops, or hangs, from a shape above.

Follow these steps to add a shape to an Organization Chart diagram:

Select the shape to which you will add a shape.

Choose an Add Shape command.

You can choose Add Shape commands in two ways:

On the (SmartArt Tools) Design tab, open the drop-down list on the Add Shape button and choose an Add Shape command.

Right-click the shape you selected, choose Add Shape on the shortcut menu, and then choose an Add Shape command on the submenu.

Add Shape Before places a new shape to the left of the shape you selected; Add Shape After places a new shape to the right.

The Add Assistant command creates an intermediary shape between two levels. The command is called Add Assistant because assistants don’t have a ranking in organization charts. Executive assistants, secretaries, and the like are attached to the bigwigs of the organization and don’t have a real place in the hierarchy, although everyone knows they do most of the work.